Louis Lewin (9 November 1850 - 1 December 1929) was a Germanpharmacologist. In 1887 he received his first sample of thePeyote cactus fromDallas, Texas-based physicianJohn Raleigh Briggs (1851-1907), and later published the first methodical analysis of it, causing a variant to be namedAnhalonium lewinii in his honor.[1]
Lewin was born inTuchel,West Prussia. He received his education at thegymnasium and theUniversity of Berlin (M.D. 1876). The two years following his graduation he spent atMunich, in the laboratories ofvon Voit andPettenkofer. Returning to Berlin in 1878, he became an assistant at the pharmacological institute of the university, and in 1881 he was admitted to the medical faculty asPrivatdozent. In 1897 he was finally appointed professor.[2]
Louis Lewin's book "Die Nebenwirkungen der Arzneimittel" (1881) deals with the borderline between the pharmacological and the toxicological action of drugs with the untoward or side-effects of all kinds of medicaments.[3] It was the first book of its kind.[2] Another of his important books was "Phantastica" (1924),[4] which began an era of ethnobotany that continues to the present day.
Lewin mentioned in his book "Gifte und Vergiftungen" (1929) the causal connection between dental amalgam fillings and illness.[5] One of his famous patients were the well-known chemistry professorAlfred Stock (1876-1946), who suffered frommercury poisoning due tooccupational exposure.[5] Lewin informed him also about mercury exposure from dental amalgams. In 1926 in an article in Zeitschrift für Angewandte Chemie (Journal of Applied Chemistry), Stock claimed that released mercury from amalgam fillings caused poisoning and demanded the consumption stopped.[6] This triggered a sharp and intense debate in Germany.[7]
One of Lewin's most enduring tasks was to create a system of classification ofpsychoactive drugs and plants based on their pharmacologic action. His original categories were:
Lewin was a prolific writer. Among his many essays may be mentioned:
"Über Morphium-Intoxication" --OnMorphium intoxication (in "Deutsche Zeitschrift für Praktische Medizin", 1874)
"Experimentelle Untersuchungen über die Wirkungen des Aconitin auf das Herz" --Experimental analysis on the effects ofAconitine on theheart (in "Centralblatt für die Medizinische Wissenschaft", 1875)
"Über die Verwertung des Alkohols in fieberhaften Krankheiten" --On the application of alcohol withfeverish maladies (in "Deutsches Archiv für Klinische Medizin", 1876)
"Über maximale Dosen der Arzneimittel" --On maximum doses of medicaments (in "Transactions of the International Medical Congress", 1887)
"Über allgemeine Hautvergiftung durch Petroleum" --On the broadeczema caused bypetroleum (inRudolf Virchow's "Archiv,", 1888)
"Über Anhalonium Lewinii und andere Cacteen" --OnAnhalonium lewinii and othercacti (in "Archiv für Experimentelle Pathologie und Pharmakologie", 1894)
"Die Behandlung der Lepra" --The treatment ofleprosy (in "Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift", 1898)
"Die Untersuchungen von Blutflecken" --Analysis ofhemangioma (in "Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift", 1899)
"Die Vergiftungen in Betrieben" --Intoxications at business (in "Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift", 1890)
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906).The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.